This invention relates to curable compositions containing halobutyl rubber, and a cure system comprising (a) sulfur, (b) a sulfur accelerator, (c) a zinc-containing promoter, (d) urea, a urea derivative or mixtures thereof and, optionally, (e) a di- or tri-functional mercapto compound nonsulfur curative. This invention also relates to crosslinked materials formed from the curable compositions of this invention. The crosslinked materials formed in accordance with this invention have an excellent balance of cure rate, degree of crosslinking, scorch safety and physical properties, and exhibit excellent tire carcass adhesion as is useful in tire inner liners, as well as excellent impermeability to gases which is highly useful in tire inner tubes and inner liners for pneumatic tires.
Tire liners based on blends of halobutyl rubber, especially chlorobutyl rubber, with hydrocarbon backbone rubber, such as natural rubber or reclaimed butyl rubber or both, generally exhibit acceptable gas impermeability characteristics, but they experience difficulty due to sensitivity to entrapment of gases, particularly air. As is disclosed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,087, the impermeability of tire liners based on such blends can be improved by adding an epichlorohydrin rubber to the blend. However, while the addition of an epichlorohydrin rubber to halobutyl rubber-based blends results in tire liner compositions having good air impermeability, the resulting compositions often are not characterized by a good balance of cure rate, scorch safety and physical properties, and generally do not adhere satisfactorily to tire carcasses.
In order to improve the physical characteristics of tire liner compositions comprised of blends of halobutyl rubber and epihalohydrin rubber, it has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,617 to crosslink the tire liner compositions with a crosslinking composition containing both (1) a sulfur curative system, which cures through the unsaturation present in the halobutyl rubber or mixtures thereof with butyl rubber, and (2) a nonsulfur curative system, which cures through the halogen functionality of the epihalohydrin rubber in the blend. The sulfur curative system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,617 comprises (a) sulfur, (b) a conventional sulfur accelerator, such as mercaptobenzothiazole and its derivatives, sulfenamides, thiurams, and dithiocarbamate salts, and (c) a zinc oxide promotor. The nonsulfur curative system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,617 comprises di- and tri-functional mercapto compounds and their derivatives, such as 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole or trithiocyanuric acid, alone or in combination with a basic activator as set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,128,510 and 4,288,576.
The basic activator materials that are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,128,510 and 4,288,576 include basic amines and amine salts, and basic metal oxides and hydroxides and their salts with weak acids, such as, for example, lead oxides, zinc oxide, magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, calcium hydroxide, barium oxide, zinc carbonate, barium carbonate, sodium carbonate, lead acetate and sodium acetate. These basic materials are disclosed as being suitable for use in combination with certain 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazoles as a crosslinking system for halogen-containing polymers, including epihalohydrin homopolymers and copolymers, chlorobutyl rubber and bromobutyl rubber.
Another improved cure system for crosslinking halogen-containing rubbers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,446 and comprises (1) 2,3-dimercapto-pyrazine or quinoxaline compound as a crosslinking agent, and (2) a compound of a metal of Group II or IV as an acid acceptor. The acid acceptors disclosed in that patent include oxides, hydroxides, carbonates, carboxylates silicates, borates and phosphites of Group II or IV metals, preferably of Mg, Ba, Ca and Zn; and oxides, basic carbonates, basic carboxylates, basic phosphites, basic sulfites, and tribasic sulfates of Group IVa metals, preferably Sn and Pb. In addition to the crosslinking agent and acid acceptor, the curative system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,446 may include a vulcanization accelerator such as sulfur, a thiuram sulfide, a dithiocarbamate, a sulfenamide, an aliphatic or aromatic amine, or a salt of a weak acid such as 2-mercaptobenzothiazole, phthalic acid or benzoic acid with such an amine. The use of the curative system of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,446 for crosslinking a blend of an epichlorohydrin rubber and an epoxy-containing acrylic rubber is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,698.
Still another improved curative system for crosslinking epichlorohydrin rubbers is disclosed in an article by Helfried Ehrend, entitled Crosslinking Of Epichlorohydrin Elastomers (Rubber World, pp 29-31, 34-35, May 1985). In that article, it is disclosed that blends of epichlorohydrin homopolymer and epichlorohydrin-ethylene oxide copolymer showed a high degree of vulcanization and very good scorch time using a vulcanizing system comprising Rhenofit UE, barium carbonate and a derivative of mercaptothiadiazole. Rhenofit UE, which is available from Rhein-Chemie Division of Mobay Chemical Corporation, is a derivative of urea. The Chemical Abstracts Registry Number for Rhenofit UE is 96827-93-9 and is disclosed in 103 Chemical Abstracts 55232c.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,989 relates to thermoplastic elastomers containing crosslinked epihalohydrin rubbers in combination with a crystalline polyolefin and a chlorinated hydrocarbon. The elastomers are made by simultaneously crosslinking the epihalohydrin rubber and blending the rubber with the other components. The curing system that is used cures the rubber in preference to the crystalline polyolefin and the chlorinated hydrocarbon and comprises a crosslinking agent and one or more accelerators. Among the crosslinking agents disclosed in this patent are substituted thioureas and thiobisureas, di- and trithiols such as the dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazoles disclosed in the above-discussed U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,510, trithiocyanuric acid, and the thioester derivatives of the di- and trithiols. Illustrative of the accelerators which are disclosed as being useful are elemental sulfur, thiuram sulfides, thiazole and thiazole derivatives, inorganic bases that are hydroxides, oxides or carbonates of metals of Group Ia or IIa of the Mendeleef Periodic Table as disclosed in Moeler, Inorganic Chemistry, p. 123 (Wiley & Sons; 1959), basic amines as disclosed in the above-discussed U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,576, and inorganic bases that are metal compounds of Group II and IVb of the Mendeleef Period Table.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,341 relates to a rubber composition which gives a vulcanizate having improved resistance to permeation to various gaseous components and improved strength properties. The composition, which is disclosed as being useful for the production of tires, comprises (1) a first vulcanized component, which is vulcanized rubber, vulcanized halogenated butyl rubber or a mixture of both: and (2) a second rubber component which is at least one rubber selected from chlorinated polyethylene rubber, chlorosulfonated polyethylene rubber and epichlorohydrin rubber, wherein the first rubber component is dispersed as crosslinked rubber particles in the second rubber component by dynamic vulcanization or by blending the second rubber component with a powder of the crosslinked first rubber component.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,505 relates to the crosslinking of chlorinated polyethylene with 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole in the presence of an amido amine corresponding to the formula: EQU R--CO--NH--(CH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2 --NH).sub.n --R.sub.1
in which R is a saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon radical containing 6 to 22 carbon atoms; R.sub.1 represents alkyl, aryl, cycloalkyl, aralkyl, or RCOCH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 ; and n is an integer of from 1 to 10. An example of a suitable amido amine is tetraethylene pentamine distearate.